When you advertise through other methods, such as media buying or social media marketing, properly choosing the audience that will see your ads is very important. This is something that has been done by the best internet marketers ever since online advertising came into existence. In fact, it is also a concept that predates online advertising too. After all, you wouldn’t see ads for payday loan places or pawn shops in magazines whose readership is mainly comprised of millionaires. Even though the importance of proper targeting is well known, many online marketers don’t do any of it when it comes to email marketing campaigns.

They have one big list and apply a “one size fits all” approach to email marketing. Therefore, everyone on the list gets the exact same message sent to them. Now in some cases, such as if you’re only selling one main online informational product and you want to promote some of your secondary products that you own, this might be a good way to do things. After all, it’s simple, all you need to do is to create the email message, load up your list and then just fire away.

But if you have multiple products, several different kinds of customers, people who subscribed to your list for different reasons, or if you promote a diverse range of affiliate offers in your email messages, then properly choosing your audience would be beneficial for you. All that targeting does is ensures that your message will get to people who will be the most likely to buy the products that you’re promoting to them.

The first step towards targeting is personalization. At the very least, you can insert the recipients name in the email. Studies have shown that people are more likely to pay attention to a message that was directly addressed to them, as opposed to having a generic greeting such as “Dear Friend” or “Valued Customer”, etc. Using a script that handles your email marketing automatically makes it very easy to insert the clients name, as well as other attributes into an email message that you send to them.

Then, there is also the products that you present to your reader in the message. You need to think what different kinds of recipients you have and what products they would be more likely to get. Think about what kind of shopper they would be. Do they want something that is the cheapest item possible in terms of price, or are they looking for something that will be very useful and valuable for them, regardless of how much it would cost. Also, think of what category of items certain groups of subscribers would be most likely to buy from you. Tomorrow, we will see how you can get the right information about your list subscribers and then use that for your marketing efforts.

So we’ve seen some ways to get started with your marketing campaigns for this holiday season if you own an e-commerce site. But do you want some more ideas on how you can draw in more site visitors and sales on your website? Here are some more ideas that you can use. Remember, you can always think up of your own strategies, look up some more online, or adapt these to match your overall business objectives, as well as your creativity.

• Use Twitter For an Everyday Special

Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool for businesses. Of course, this is no secret and anyone into online marketing will already know this. But it is how you use Twitter that can make the difference between “good” and “excellent” results for your website. Simply Tweeting the same thing over and over again like “Come in! We have specials” is likely to bore your users after a while. But having a special promotion each day on a certain item, or category of items during the countdown to Christmas will be much better at keeping them paying attention to your Twitter feed.

• Create a Facebook Event

You could make a day (or week) where you offer even bigger promotions to your buyers and attract them by creating a Facebook event, then inviting your Facebook friends to it. People often get invites to holiday parties and events during this season, so there is a high chance that they will be paying attention to the invites that they receive.

• Donate Some of Your Proceeds to Charity

The holidays are a time of giving and sharing, so you definitely don’t want your company to look like “Scrooge Inc.” during this time of the year. Give some of your proceeds to a charity, maybe even a Christmas themed one and announce this on your website, social media pages and e-mail newsletters. Your shoppers will see your business as one who cares about others in need and will be more likely to shop with you.

• Organize Some Giveaways and Contests

This doesn’t have to be complicated or require a lot of cutbacks from you. For example, you can post a coupon code on your social media page that is valid for the first 10 or so people that use it. Then, do the same again in a few days. This will do a lot to keep users paying attention to your advertising messages. A contest is also a good way to draw some attention. You could, for example, be giving away a free item or a gift voucher valid for a certain amount of money at your web store. Be creative, there are plenty of more giveaways that you can offer to your website visitors. Remember, your shoppers will want to see that you are giving them something valuable and sharing during this holiday season. A few free gifts can definitely be helpful. Customers who got something from you also have a higher chance of coming back to buy something, even if it is after the holidays.

Besides issues that are more related to your products rather than your marketing, there are also certain things on your site which could affect your conversion rates. Obviously, you will want as many visitors as possible to purchase something from you when you are selling something online. Here are some more things to do which can increase your conversions:

• Create landing pages specific to your marketing campaigns

If you have advertising campaigns going on which focus on a specific product, or a specific promotion, then you need to create a landing page that reflects it. Don’t simply direct people to your “home” site and then let them find what they want by themselves. Sure, some will. But many others won’t and will simply leave.

So let’s say that you sell clothing online and have a promotion in which jackets are 50% off. You will want to create a landing page specific for that promotion and then from it, direct visitors to the jacket section of your website.

• Use live chat

While not all of us can have people available 24 hours a day to chat with site visitors, if you are able to this is definitely one good way to increase your conversion rates. When someone is browsing your site, by using certain live chat scripts, you can interact with them and ask them if there is something specific they are looking for or if they need some help navigating through your site. Many people will appreciate the fact that you are giving them personal attention and will feel re-assured that there are actual human beings behind the site they are visiting. This is basically called “proactive” live chat, because you are engaging with the website visitor before they contact you.

If you have limited resources, you can also use a “reactive” live chat support model. This means putting a button on your site that allows the visitor to chat with you if they have a question. While it may not seem like much, it can make a difference in conversions. Once again, you need to remember that people are not that patient and do not have big attention spans. Putting up a prominent live chat button with representatives ready to answer their questions could have a very positive impact on your sales, as many people don’t really want to wait several hours to get a response by email, and during that time, there are high chances that they will actually go look for the same product or service from someone else.

There are still many other things you can do on your website to improve conversions. Tomorrow we will discuss some other on-page factors that can be used to increase the conversions that you get from your traffic.

A lot of businesses, both big and small, have realized the importance and the virtually unlimited potential that social media marketing has. Of course, participating in social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace is good for any business. However, you social media marketing campaigns need to be done properly in order for them to net you the maximum benefit. There are certain things that are best avoided. Here is an overview of the most common mistakes that businesses make when using various kinds of social media sites:

Excessive Advertising

When establishing a presence on social media sites, the first thing that any business owner needs to keep in mind is that these sites were never built to be used as advertising platforms for businesses. Rather, they were created with the goal of providing a place for people to connect with others. Therefore, if all you do is bombard people with commercial messages, they will either drop you or simply not pay attention to what you are saying. Advertisements, such as posting promotional Tweets or Facebook wall messages should be done in limited numbers.

Not Updating Your Page

Social networks are places where users constantly post new information about themselves for the world to see. Your business page should be no different. Make sure that you update it regularly. Even if you don’t have any new products or promotions, you could always make some interesting posts related to your business, such as industry news, information on upcoming product launches, or general advice that is related to your niche. Let’s say that you are in the business of selling vacuum cleaners. You could post information on how to select the best vacuum cleaner, etc.

If you have a page that looks “dead” because it wasn’t updated in a long time, users will gradually lose interest in it as there is nothing new for them to see.

Not Spending Enough Time on Putting Together Your Page

Your business page on social networks is there to reflect your business. As such, its design and message should be consistent with your existing website. If possible, choose a color scheme and font that resembles closely to the one on your main website. It is important that your social media page looks interesting and well made. If you put something together that looks like you made it in 5 minutes while watching TV, it will give it a “cheap” look that reflects poorly on your business.

If you need ideas or are having trouble improving your page, there are plenty of guides that provide details on using specific social networks that you can buy or download for free online. There are also various social media marketing forums that can provide advice or design a page for you. Remember, while building a social media page is not difficult, you will still have to put in a decent amount of time and effort into it if you expect it to bring you good results.

If you own a small business, you may have heard about the possibility to use social media in order to increase your bottom line. While this is certainly true, there are a few things that you need to know about social media before you jump in. It is always important to have a properly made marketing strategy in order for your efforts to be beneficial for you.

The first thing that you would need to consider is what social network to use for your marketing campaigns. There are various networks out there and they all have their unique advantages. For example, Facebook has a demographically diverse user base and the highest number of users. This makes it a good all around choice to promote your business.

LinkedIn is more geared towards business users. It’s main purpose is for individuals and businesses to connect to each other and share information. This makes it a poor choice if your goal is to promote your products or services online. However, it can help you find qualified employees who are looking for a job. It could also be a great tool to network with other business owners and vendors. This will allow you to form partnerships with other businesses and individuals that could have something useful to offer you. For example, if you need your main website redesigned, you can network with a web design company that can do it for you.

Twitter is a network that lets users post Tweets, or short message to keep others in the know as to what they are doing. It is often used by people to share some information about their lives with friends. But it does have significant advantages for businesses as well. You can post updates about your products or services, or announce a new promotion to your followers. It is also possible to put your website link in your Tweets to drive additional traffic to your website.

Despite the fact that social networks can be a powerful tool for the promotion of your business, remember that their main purpose is for users to be entertained and share information. After all, people do not log in to a social network just to be bombarded with advertisements and promotional messages. If your postings consist of nothing but that, it is quick way to simply get ignored. Offer your users some useful content that doesn’t sound too promotional. For example, you can post how to guides or links to news articles that are related to your industry and that the users will have an interest in.

Also remember to update your page frequently with fresh content. People always want to see something new and if you don’t post anything to your social media page in a while, they will simply lose interest in it rather quickly. Do everything possible to make them want to visit your page on a regular basis.

A great attraction marketing guru, Seth Godin.

Attraction marketing is simply drawing people into your products and services by attraction. Pretty straightforward huh? Well if it isn’t, the best way i can think about attraction marketing is by telling people and showing them what you are capable of and what sort of value you can bring to them. There are a ton of great ways you can do this — but the general system is to create valuable content, no matter the medium, that shows you are an expert in what you are talking about and can teach someone (or provide someone) with the knowledge you have for a given area of expertise or need.

Offering eBooks is one of the attraction marketing techniques which is useful towards providing leads which will eventually turn into conversions for your marketing campaigns. The use of eBooks can be diverse as you can take advantage of preexisting options which are free to distribute or even write your own eBook which can provide some information samples which readers will want to learn more about. This makes it possible to ask them to continue learning more by purchasing a product or joining a system.

Social media attractors are some of the most effective options that you have at your disposal for attraction marketing. Creating an account on a social media website is easy and provides plenty of people to start networking in. Make sure to add in a large amount of interests which are similar to what you will be marketing and send requests to others for mutual associations. These requests can be friendship, followers, and many other types of associations depending on the social media network. Once a network of about 50 or so people has been achieved, start providing interesting information about the product or system that you are marketing. Most users will be intrigued and at least check out what you posted.

Conventional websites are the tried and true method for attraction marketing. Using the old process of creating a website, specializing in a niche or range of niches and creating content to fill the sites with information that readers will want to stick around for is the real way to make use of the sites. Visitors to websites will usually make an assumption about the website in the first few seconds of their visit. It is always true that the more pleasing the aesthetic feel of the site is, coupled with what information it contains, will always help to provide attraction marketing leads.